How to get started with transmogrification and be the most stylish newbie on the block

When I first created my gnome monk, I immediately noticed that while the other class options had stylish starting gear, my monk had a sleeveless black shirt, plain black pants, and no shoes. I assumed that, as a monk, my gnome valued simplicity over flash -- but, really, a sleeveless shirt and bare feet in the endless Dun Morogh snow just seemed impractical. Wouldn't she get cold? Did I need to be concerned about frostbite? What if my poor gnome stepped on something sharp?

Fortunately, I soon found a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of boots and was able to stop worrying about it. Until level 64 when, questing in Hellfire Peninsula, I received a pair of boots that was a huge upgrade from my old boots, but weren't quite boots. Instead, they were bright green bands that wrapped around the ankle and covered the top of the foot, but left the bottom bare: Hardly practical footware for exploring the demon-infested Outland.

It was this that finally drove me to figure out WoW's transmogrification system, which lets you make one piece of gear (armor or weapon) look like another. Though this feature seems primarily designed for high level players who have had the time to collect numerous pieces of gear, you can start transmogrifying at any level. The only downside to starting early is that you'll be tempted to find and buy gear just for its looks -- which can be pricey! But if you're a savvy auction house trader, you can use everyone else's transmogrification obsession to make some cash.

Transmogrification is simple. To get started, you just need to find one of the Ethereal Transmogrifiers, so look for Warpweaver Hashom in Stormwind or Warpweaver Dushar in Orgrimmar. (If you're having trouble finding them, just ask a city guard to direct you.)

Once you've found the Transmogrifiers, there's a few basic rules about how the process works:

You must be able to equip both the item you want to transmogrify to and the item whose appearance you want to transmogrify from.

You can only change the same type of armor or weapon into the same type of armor or weapon. So, for example, you can't wear plate and look like you're wearing cloth or have a main-hand weapon that looks like an off-hand weapon.

There's one big exception to the rule above: bows, crossbows, and guns can all transmogrified into bows, crossbows, or guns. Hunters rejoice!

You cannot transmogrify items without stats of any kind, though you can use their appearance to transmogrify other items.

Some things you can't transmogrify to or from, like fishing poles and legendary items. (Though there are some items that you won't know aren't eligible until you try to transmogrify them.)

Mailing, selling, or placing an item in void storage removes the transmogrification.

Once you've used an item for transmogrification, it becomes soulbound.

Now you're ready to transmogrify your way to high fashion! Be sure you're wearing the gear whose appearance you'd like to transmogrify and you have the gear whose appearance you'd like to use in your inventory and speak to the Transmogrifier. The transmogification interface is very straightforward: just drag the gear whose appearance you want to use on to the gear you have equipped. If there's any kind of problem -- say you're trying to make a leather helm look like a plate helm -- an error message will pop up letting you know what's wrong.

Once you're done, click okay to accept the changes (and the associated fee) and then you're off to making WoW fashion history! You can drop the items you used to transmogrify your gear in the bank or sell them -- though if you sell them, you won't be able to use them to transmogrify more gear in the future.

Need some help finding just the right look? Though browsing the auction house for equippable gear will certainly give you some ideas, you can check out our guide of transmogrification resources for plenty of dedicated reference material on transmogrification.

Using transmogrification for profit
For the lowbie (or anyone else!) looking to make some coin, transmogrification means that any armor you encounter -- even typically useless gray quality armor -- with a unique or interesting look is probably worth selling on the auction house to potential transmogrifies.

While you could certainly cart everything you pick up to the auction house and put it up at whatever price seems reasonable, we recommend using an addon to make your auctioning as simple as possible. An auction house addon will scan what's available for sale whenever you're at an auction house and save that information to help you know the best prices to buy at and sell for. Our favorites are Auctioneer and Auctionator, both of which will add the current standard auction cost to the item's tooltip so you can know what's worth selling (and what isn't) at a glance.